Reggae of a particular vintage, free of all the trappings of the modern dancehall and absolutely slathered in 60s-style echo-echo-echo-echo. The music itself seems to emit endless clouds of marijuana smoke and the sweet aroma of coconut rum. I find reggae to be something I don't have much affinity for, but I definitely prefer this ancient approach. Sounding as though it were recorded from an old radio broadcast, probably on the AM band, the low fidelity actually bolsters this music and makes it sound more authentic. That said, it's still too long and obsessive-sounding, and I think four minutes would have been plenty. As it is, it's over eight, and while I can nod enthusiastically at the cool application of various hand drums and woodblocks, and plinking rather psychedelic-sounding guitar, it still seems a bit shallow to me, as this genre is wont to do. There's very little actually going on. Mr. perry yelling at the beginning about Ja Rasta Far I and the Holy Spirit is just so stereotypical, but what can you do? Oh, the female backup singers with their insistent delivery ...that was cute. "Deesco devil!"

Whoa, um, I think I might be a little bit out of my element like the proverbial Donny here. It starts off with some grandiose keyboarding that I can't really define. Neoclassical maybe? Then it switches into this really cool riff that I would describe as slightly jangly with some super busy bass which is just as interesting as the riff. And it goes on for the whole song. This goes through so many passages and moods in such a short time, but none of it feels any less than completely cohesive. We get a calm interlude and the return of the keyboards half-way through and it's good. Overall this is a pretty happy/dreamy sounding piece. The vocals aren't really my thing though, and I wish I could understand what they were saying. Now it's turned into this weird little guitar interplay thing. Man, this is progressive that's for sure. In every sense of the word. Undeniably adventurous songwriting. I'd say the bass is definitely my favourite part. It interweaves through everything flawlessly. The drummer is certainly no slouch either, throwing some off kilter fills and beats in and all around not exactly playing like a rock drummer. Really I can't say I LOVE it or would know when to throw it on, but if you can't get enough of vintage PROG, you should be on this right now.

Cool review. One thing to bear in mind is this is an early example of Dub rather than true reggae. Meaning that that it's essentially a remix - you take a 4 min pop song, strip out most of the guitars and vocals and reconstruct it out of drums, bass and reverb. There are about 8 versions of the original song that I know of, but this is kinda interesting in that a good 60% of production techniques we are familiar with from electronic music originated in Mr Perry's backyard tin shack. I dont like "actual" reggae very much either, but Dub is way cool given that its essentially about deconstruction and studio wizardry. It does require a lot of patience though as its not immediate music by any stretch.

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Mike_Tyson wrote:

"I think the average person thinks I'm a fucking nut and I deserve whatever happens to me."

Ah yes. Cool, evocative music from a group I've heard before. This sounds pretty much like everything I've heard from them, too, and I'm curious to know if they ever really try anything different. They sound like they should be writing the soundtrack to a noir film, probably taking place exclusively in some grey, dreary European nightime cityscape. This conjures up the same sort of atmosphere as Miles Davis's "Lift to the Scaffold" score, although it's rather less haunting. Picture shivering, gaunt figures standing dispiritedly on rainy street corners, smoking listless cigarette after cigarette, waiting..for something, their parkas (or trenches) drawn tight about their forms, dwarfed by the sinister buildings all around them. The instrumentation is sparse, the music quiet and slow, not in a hurry to go anyplace. Fender rhodes piano, or some modern equivalent, chords away in a subdued fashion while a smoky tenor sax takes the lead. I'm sure there was stand-up bass in there but my not being able to hear it as well as I would like leads me to realise once again that my headphones at work here are not that great. Anyway, I like the atmosphere exuded by this group but...nothing ever changes, does it? I can't help but feel their formula may be limiting them somewhat. Maybe they should try a noir film in New York instead of Paris? I don't know, I think this stuff makes for great mood music but the guys are so talented; why don't they try something a little more varied? Enjoyable though, for sure..makes me want to stay home tonight and drink whisky and watch old movies...a pastime I can get behind at the best of moments.

I'm glad you like them. Very much mood music indeed. They only change their sound ever so slightly from album to album. As such I think only this one (their best, IMO) Midnight Black Earth (a more desolate, apocalyptic vibe) and Midnight Radio (but only if over two hours of sparse guitar ambient strikes your fancy, very much a one song at a time record) are worth checking out. With the rest being even less eventful and also interchangeable. I've been really into them recently, as well as other dark jazz groups like Killimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble. Really great for that aforementioned night time smoking. Great review.

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theposaga about a Moonblood rehearsal wrote:

So good. Makes me want to break up with my girlfriend, quit my job and never move out of my parents house. Just totally destroy my life for Satan.

Funk (is it funk? prog funk? no idea, but confident it's the former) is a genre that I will never like. It's too slow for my dancing style, and listening to it and not dancing is about as entertaining as listening to some trance without the dancing. The bass lines are cool and there's no doubt it's a super well done song, good instrumentation, tasty soloing. It's also boring as hell, a genre that I have nothing in common in whatsoever on any level at all, and that was 9 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. To summarize, exquisitely made and I dislike it with a fervent passion, so based on enjoyment it gets a 2/10.

I find most old "stuff to dance to" painful. Y'know how tempos increase as the decades fly by, and in this regard if it's older than 15 years I'll likely be heading to the bar for a breather

That's pretty bizarre sounding shit to me, man. I get that you like faster dance music but that's still just a product of modern technology rather than the general dancing taste..hell, people still love to dance to old swing!

_________________Hush! and harkTo the sorrowful cryOf the wind in the dark.Hush and hark, without murmur or sigh,To shoon that tread the lost aeons:To the sound that bids you to die.

Cool band, the song "Jared Goes to Morgan" really hits the spot when I'm in the right mood.

Woven Hand - Behind Your Breath

Weird coincidence, I just downloaded one of their albums earlier this night (first time ever hearing them) and was totally blown away by it, I was actually thinking of posting one of their songs in this thread before I just saw you already did. It's hard to put his sound into words due to the vast number of influences at play, alternative country mixed with neofolk, post-punk and a fuck-ton of other stuff, I guess. This song has a strong Western vibe to it, a lot of the instrumentation would go well in an old cowboy movie. There's some cool reverb guitar lines, adding an almost vaguely psychedelic element. This whole thing is very grandiose, while the songwriting and vocals are quite good, the instrumentation really steals the show. Stellar shit.

Ah, a superb choice. SWANS are one of my top 5 bands easily - I own all the records, seen them 4 times, I've had the good luck to have the chance to chat with Michael Gira, I have a framed tour poster in my kitchen even.The Seer, the album this is taken from, really is something else. Long as hell, yes, but really involving. Broadly speaking, this is "psychedelic music" in it's broadest sense - expansive, sometimes frightening, intense, transcendent. Starting with the disorentating tinkle of a dulcimer and guitar, the track builds into a huge wash of sound as the vocals come in. This is followed by an unsettlingly quiet refrain - "your childhood is over", which serves as a great introduction to the themes of the album as a whole.

Tried Coil a few years back. It wasn't bad but a bit too weird for my tastes; some pretty cool soundscapes but overall I never found it to be an engaging enough listen to persevere with, y'know? I rather liked the underlying loop here although it went for way too long, and overall it's a song that I'd put down as "quirky but utterly pointless". That said it did have a delightfully otherworldly vibe to it within it's minimalism and all it's english accent-ness; you could see a bunch of 1st gen golden dawners smashing some opium and listening to this. You've got me curious enough to download some Coil and see what the rest of it is like. Cheers!

Dark and unsettling electronica of some sort. You'll have to excuse my ignorance of the sub-genres within electronic music. I'm naturally inclined to dismiss this stuff off hand but I gave it 3 attentive listens. I found the looping speech parts grating. On the second and third listen I just tried to tune them out and it was more enjoyable. A lot of repetitive distorted bass sounds and keyboards that wouldn't sound out of place on a Dr. Who soundtrack or the disturbing stuff happening montage of an '80s sci-fi/horror flick. I could imagine this playing while watching bodies disinter themselves or a mad max look alike driving through a devastated wasteland revealing the horrors of some apocalyptic event. It sets an interesting mood. I definitely dug that. But I still feel like it is somehow incomplete. I think that's just my bias though. My expectations/enjoyment of music usually needs more than just mood and atmosphere. I need something with finer detail if I'm going to do more than just put it on in the background and do something else. That finer detail can be the poetry, imagery or story of a lyricist or it can be the intricacies, subtleties, interplay or virtuosity of the instrumentalists. For some reason I am unable to get that from this type of music. Once again it's probably just me. Obviously there is a composition there with multiple layered sounds, "instruments" coming in and out and changes in overall tone from the beginning with its insistent beat of the bass drum to the end with its slower more epic feel but it just doesn't do the same thing for me. Maybe more exposure would change that but I don't know. I'm not sure the payoff would be worth the time invested.

Was going to post a song of Mr. Adams's that I have a more personal connection to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMZYRvDvgT4# but thought better of it. The place that that song holds in my heart is probably amplified by my own occasional longing for my home in Carolina (even if I think the song is probably about a woman instead of his actual home). It's still a great song in my opinion but may not carry that same emotional impact for others. Emmylou Harris is great on it though. It's also a more sparse composition than Magnolia Mountain so the lyrics and vocal performance have to carry it more.

Hmm, this is nice, but I can sure hear it's heritage coming out. I'm not a big stickler for originality as the be all and end all of music, but this guy really likes his Crosby, Stills,Nash & Young albums. I think they were talking in the recent Alice in Chains discussion thread about the country influence on AiC and some seemed to disbelieve it as a relevant factor. It would be interesting to hold this up as a comparison to the jar of flies ep as it seems to capture some of the same atmosphere. A bit like if you changed the arrangement on one of those early-mid 70's "laurel canyon cowboy" albums (CSNY, Neil Young, The Eagles etc) into totally minor keys but kept the lap steel etc there. It sits somewhere between singer-songwriter stuff and somewhat grungy rock arrangement, even though it's all acoustic.

Anyway, here's something I've developed a real liking to lately. I think there must be some truth in the adage that you discover some things at just the right time, as I had always earmarked his music as something I might like based on the way people spoke of it:

This reminds me of a much darker version of something The Beatles could have done on Abbey Road, or Blackbird on severe downers with a sprinkling of Leonard Cohen's knack for some seriously, heavy browed contemplation. The stripped back acoustic guitar is the perfect counterpoint to the main draw - the vocals. Such light and almost whimsical, breathy tones deliver a tale of regret and... not quite despair, but close, just hanging in there. The guitar forms one half of the musical content, as a violin also has a part to play here, and it's purpose is to create that raincloud-like shadow that accompanies this piece, as it swells into view to keep the cold a companion. It is beautiful in it's own way, but I don't see much cheer within this, as the grey, stonewall visions are ever present within this as I see it, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, because life isn't all beer and skittles. Perfect accompaniment to an open fire, red wine (or scotch), and low light after a hard day.

This reminds me of a much darker version of something The Beatles could have done on Abbey Road, or Blackbird on severe downers with a sprinkling of Leonard Cohen's knack for some seriously, heavy browed contemplation. The stripped back acoustic guitar is the perfect counterpoint to the main draw - the vocals. Such light and almost whimsical, breathy tones deliver a tale of regret and... not quite despair, but close, just hanging in there. The guitar forms one half of the musical content, as a violin also has a part to play here, and it's purpose is to create that raincloud-like shadow that accompanies this piece, as it swells into view to keep the cold a companion. It is beautiful in it's own way, but I don't see much cheer within this, as the grey, stonewall visions are ever present within this as I see it, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, because life isn't all beer and skittles. Perfect accompaniment to an open fire, red wine (or scotch), and low light after a hard day.

Yeah, poor fucker died of an anti-depressant overdose not all that long later. That shit was nasty in the early 70's. His entire career lasted 6 years and he died at the ripe old age of 26. By all accounts he was nearly catatonically shy, refused to be filmed or give interviews. Just those 3 perplexingly odd and haunting albums left of him.

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Mike_Tyson wrote:

"I think the average person thinks I'm a fucking nut and I deserve whatever happens to me."

Nick Drake was definitely pretty cool. Some of his stuff is fucken hard to play as well; quite the virtuoso.

Depeche Mode- Breathe

I kind of like depeche mode, sonically they aren't what I ever look for in music but I can't really pick faults either. Nicely atmospheric, love the guy's hell bummed out croon. Underwater bar meets 70's james bond villain vibes here, which is rather cool. Plus it's always a fair bit less synth-y than I expect (though it is still rather synthy, haha) which I like. More dynamcs would've been appreciated, bummed out lounge-via-new wave isn't really my ideal sound, haha. Their new single was rad! This meanwhile is another one that's well put together but not really my thing.

Pretty cool ambient. The song has a constant kinda low and soft drone that occasionally gets rather static-y. Over this, there's a simple little two-key melody that comes in like clockwork but always slowly fades away only to come back again. The song ends by becoming white noise that quickly fades away. While I enjoyed the song, it certainly wasn't something I'd recommend to anyone who wasn't a fan of ambient.

Larrnakh - DelictumDecent enough neo-folk. Repetitive acoustic guitar with a downtrodden tone backs this piece. There is mournful and somewhat epic instrumentation in the background, which is very necessary as the guitar pretty much sounds the same throughout. The vocals kind of reminded me of the dude from Woods of Ypres, which is never a good thing. This is decent enough, but it's not good enough to really make me want to check out the band.

Stoner rock from Uruguay, huh? Really nice slinky bassline in this one. I'm torn on the vocals - they're treading a thin line between charmingly off-the-cuff and lazy enough to be slightly distracting. This kind of reminds me of old Black Rebel Motorcycle Club actually. Really shimmery, floaty stuff that would make really excellent driving music, especially at night. I actually felt like they could've jammed out on this for a few more minutes and I wouldn't have minded.

Hah, I didn't know someone else had already posted the exact same song. The whole album is really great but that song probably does the best job of summing up the whole album's range. Slint are one of my favorite bands and Spiderland would definitely get a 100% from me. Despite being pretty damn popular and supposedly influential, you don't hear a whole lot of bands really going for a similar aesthetic. I actually think it could work really well for maybe a Neurosis-ish/black metal band to take some serious influence from Slint. Anyway, glad you like 'em!

This is cool. Fantastic groove going on throughout the song, really based around the same 2 chord phrase the whole time. But the clashing chords and bass work wonderfully, as the song weaves between heavy and soft sections, never losing its urgency and groove. The vocals are mostly spoken word, and really work with the atmosphere of the song. The song ends an aggressive note, with shouts of "I miss you" over dissonant guitar work. Once again, this works really well, as the shifts in dynamics up to this point had been growing to a heavier ceiling. Really enjoyed this song, and I'll have to look into this band.

Haha Karnivool. You from Perth, draterami? They use to- don't know if they still do- play every single festival ever here, kinda like an alternative Grinspoon or something. Always kinda snobbed them off as they were the generic "Oh you like metal? Check out ______!!!" rec from dudes that listen to triple J and never have any idea about music.

This would be about a hundred times better if it had less vocals, basically. Currently it just sounds a really really huge amount like Tool, and the vocalist has a range of maybe 4 notes and sings the whole time. Essentially it needed to trip over the "fairly loud alt rock" into a full blown freak out for me to actually enjoy it. As it stands, competent but overall really rather bland, and plenty of good ideas that never really get developed- or get loud enough- for any genuine catharsis. Here's hoping they take a trip into the deep end at some point in their career. 4/10

Nah, I'm actually in Melbourne. I think Karnivool do play pretty much every festival, except they've expanded it to Australia-wide instead of just Perth. Only really taking time off to record the new album, I reckon. Actually, the other track they've released off the album, The Refusal, has a couple more experimental access, and a greater range, dynamically. But if you don't like the vocals, I don't see you ever getting into the band.

Long and expansive but deeply rousing and quite varried. It builds up with incredible force into your ears and the sound is like an immense landscape that is both overwhelming and cloying to behold. It then grows sparse as layer by layer it returns for another crushing assault, never once losing its ambiance. There's a droning effect that seems to carry it all together coherently and the song never loses its grimly persistent pace.

ahh shit! I had meant to upload a different TAP song. That one's a bit of a rare b-side that i was listening to at the time I did that post and I must've got them confused. A real shame as it's nowhere near as good as the one I was gonna upload

Oh boy... I'm writing this review while listening because I do not want to revisit this. Words fail me, due to personal taste this is leaving a very unpalatable flavour... Sickly sweet, over earnest pop, with an emphasis on broken heartedness. This is shallow, I don't get any real, authentic depth out of this. Sure the production's great, they can sing and it's well put together, but it lacks everything in terms of dynamics and lasting power - awful basically. Repetition is the key here, and to be brow-beaten by the rather listless chorus, I can't even be bothered to make out what the verses on on about, but I would hazard a guess as to them being about being damaged in a Bobby Brown/Whitney Houston style relationship, and they would prefer it if you were easy on them okay? That is all.

I dunno man. It has atmosphere, I guess, but it doesn't really tick any boxes of music I like. The groove is kind of interesting but not interesting enough, the sonics not really all that amazing- those soaring high tones aside, anyway. It's well programmed and the tones aren't too bad but it doesn't really make my dick hard and the vocals are rather average. Just run of the mill, er, electronic stuff. Sounds like it'd be a movie soundtrack for a Bourne rip off set in Europe, or something.

All in all the way I can describe this is that it sounds like an Ulver outtake from a few years ago but with worse vocals.

Steady and sombre sounding, this thing gently introduces a few layers over a simple unsyncopated beat. Synth sounds of various kinds are brought in at certain key moments, and while I felt like I knew where this was going to end up, I found myself pleased with its symmetry and ambience right from the outset. There's never any crescendo or real explosion of sound, but there are a few subtleties and a definite progression. I still think that "handclap" drum machine sound is one of the weirdest things to ever become hugely popular in music, but I guess most people, myself included, are barely concious of it these days when it is used. I'm not quite sure what mood this piece was going for but there's, as I said, a certain sombre feeling, but also something expectant and excited. Overall I would say this is positive sounding music while retaining an aura of mystery and anticipation. Cool, might want more of this.

As soon as I opened this link and saw what was in it, in my mind I immediatly saw the point of a gun. This is taken from the Dirty Harry soundtrack, I remember watching the film many years ago but not this song in particular. From the very beginning it sounds full of suspense, creating a very tense atmosphere. The drums groove throughout the song and the synths keep creating the eerie sounds (at times they remember me of Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima). There are some breaks here and there, drums keep building in intensity towards the end and the song has a very surprising finale; I didn't quite expect such explosion (so to say) first time I listened to it.

I'm tempted just to say "Meatloaf - my most hated of loafs!" and leave it at that. Anyone who saw his "performance" at the Australian Football grand final last year would most likely say the same

But anyway. Bat out of Hell. My Aunt had this when I was a kid, and I always liked the cover. I expected something heavy and demonic.....but I put the record on and it was, well, Meatloaf. And bloody hell, it goes on and on, all 10 mins of it. The saying is "it's not over till the fat lady sings", but obviously that does not apply when the chunky bloke sings because he pipes up less than a minute in and it felt like he didnt stop. It's really a case of Americans missing the point of the prog rock concept album. At least the British version in the form of ELP, Yes, Alan Parsons Project etc etc had interesting acid-addled subject matter. Meatloaf had all the overblown pomposity of the musical arrangements, but with "down to earth" themes. If I have to listen to 10 minutes of histrionics, you'd better at least take me on a journey to the centre of the earth, show me the war of the worlds, sail me around the topographic oceans or something similar.

TL, DR version: A hamburger advertisement that goes on for 10 minutes.

Very cool. The beginning didn't sound very promising, since I have one Scorn CD somewhere and found it pretty boring. This was far more interesting than I remember that being (I think I have to listen to it again). Gloomy industrial/techno/ambient. The song builds intensity in a subtle fashion. The beginning sounds like a generic beat, but various layers start appearing as it goes on and sort of draws and suberges you into its world.